My daughter Mallory who occasionally blogs here is teaching aquafit in London, Ontario at a pool where she also works as a lifeguard. I’m hoping she’ll write something for us about her experiences teaching aquafit.
Last week I was planning to go and spend the day with her, attend her class, have lunch and maybe go on an afternoon hike. All good, except the weather had other ideas. So much snow! Guelph got some snow, but London got a lot more.
School was canceled, the university was closed and a winter weather travel advisory advised against all non-essential travel. Sadly I had to admit that aquafit with Mallory was non-essential and stay home. That’s especially true since she was coming to Guelph on the weekend.
But once I got thinking about aquafit, I decided to attend a class here in Guelph at my fancy gym. I’ve been thinking lately about physical activities I’m good at and also ones that feel good. Anything in the water feels good.
Aqua Bootcamp is at 9 am on a weekday and so it’s a class I can’t ever attend while I’m doing my regular job. I have a seriously inflexible schedule as Dean. But on research leave, I can write in the evenings and read books on the weekend, and take aquafit on a weekday morning.
I love the different groups of people in the pool for aquafit. First, there’s the pregnant women. Second, there’s the injured athletes and people recovering from surgery. And third, there’s the older women.
I’ve been in the first two groups in the past. Maybe now I’m part of the third? I mean the young edge of the older women, but still.
That feeling like I might be part of the older group wasn’t helped by the music. The retro hits were all from my youth–The Talking Heads, the B-52s, and Prince. What’s next? The Clash?
It’s like when the boppy tunes of your youth are playing in the grocery store. Do I think “uh oh” or do I dance in the aisles? I’m hoping for dancing.
Aqua Bootcamp is certainly popular. One of the women in the class remarked that we were lucky to get spots. The regulars all set alarms to sign up for class because the online advance registration fills very quickly. “I feel like I got tickets to a Taylor Swift concert,” she said.
The regulars definitely have their routine down pat. Someone asked if I was in the second row or the first row. I didn’t know there were rows. Each person seemed to have a preferred spot in the pool. They were friendly and they assigned me a spot. I tried my best to stay put.
There’s a lot more aqua options now then there used to be. There’s aqua yoga, which I really like, aqua bootcamp, and even aqua Zumba. Love the Zumba idea because no one can see if you’re getting the moves right.
There’s even a piece in Self Magazine on the poularity of aquafit. Enjoy@
